Amateur Radio

History

Marconi transmitted the Morse code letter "S" from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to St. John's, Newfoundland around the beginning of the 20th century using a "spark gap" transmitter. About 1910 Ham radio (amateur stations) becomes a hobby. First wireless/radio clubs and associations are formed. Wavelength of 35-1000m is used.
Between 1920-1930 Ham radio appears in 55 countries. The term Ham becomes widespread.
And in 1929 - Internationally amateur/experimental bands are created such as : 160, 80, 40, 20, 10, and 5m. Int. system of call signs and the phonetic alphabet is introduced 1927.

The Amateur Radio Hobby

The amateur radio hobby has a language of its own and is not always easy to understand. The hobby is more popular today than it has ever been. The cost to get into the hobby has went down drastically over the last few years with the introduction of Virtual Ham Radio transceivers such as HamSphere. The Amateur Radio hobby is very diverse in what it offers and not just for listening to chatting and it conveys the spirit of cooperation among those involved. One of the interesting points about the Ham Radio Hobby is the ability to experiment with radios and antennas, including modifications of existing radios and a concept that HamSphere is now introducing with its new product HamSphere 4.0.

Virtual Ham Radio Transceiver

The computer has become a natural part of Amateur Radio shack.
Once the HamSphere software is downloaded and installed, you will have a powerful Amateur Radio Transceiver on your desktop without any extra hardware.

Computerized Ham shack

It is more and more common for amateur radio operators to use Amateur Radio software in their daily operation.
In order for all of the programs to be visible at one time, a large single display is used. The Ham Operator can launch different programs at the same time such as UTC Clock, Log programs, Microphone processors, RTTY decoders, HamSphere etc.
Ham operators have long known the advantages of having a computer in the shack for full-time ham radio operation. The disadvantage is that computers can generate interference that causes problems for the HF band (and sometimes the VHF band as well). This can actually impede the operation of your station and your ability to log DX. HamSphere Amateur Radio Software is a virtual Ham Radio Transceiver for your PC desktop and by using the software, noise and bad propagation can be eliminated completely.

A computerized Ham Shack using the HamSphere software (Courtesy of John 2HS3425)

Amateur Radio and VOIP

Voice over Internet Protocol (Voice over IP, VoIP) is one of a family of internet technologies, communication protocols for delivery of voice communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. It is now widely used by Amateur Radio operators. HamSphere uses VoIP to transport the audio between the server and client.

More Amateur Radio software utilities

Amateur Radio Software like HamSphere is designed for both Hams and non licensed radio enthuasiast. Ham software was once thought to be a means of communication between radio enthusiasts, but is nowadays including data and contest loggers, log books, Morse code tutors, RTTY Decoders and aerial design aids etc. In our forum you will find a lot of links to Amateur Radio software utilities.